:Rafter M Ramblings

On our little road trip the other day (see previous post), we stopped on the way home cause Sadie was getting grouchy from being strapped into a carseat for so long, and it was past her dinner time.  We found ourselves at a little rest area next to the river, so we made Sadie walk for a while.

Yup, those are her new cowgirl boots.

When we got to the rocks, she thought it was pretty funny how awkward it was to walk over them and she started giggling.

Then she found the dirt.

She loves dirt.

She was in my garden with me the other day cause I had to harvest some of the cilantro before it bolted and she was entertaining herself by grabbing handfuls of dirt out of the beds and dropping them on the paths.  Needless to say, I got that job done fast!

She also loves rocks, and sticks, and pinecones.

And hitting them together.

And tasting them.

This picture is on our desktop right now.

It was about time we had a decent picture of the three of us, so I set the timer and got in there.  We only took one like this and it worked out pretty good.

Then we made Sadie walk back to the truck so she’d be happy for the rest and be quiet.  Haha.

(Note the stick in each hand)

It sorta worked.  I gave her my apple core and that kept her busy.

Which reminds me, I need to wash her car seat cover.

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My newest niece, Celise.

She’s a doll.  With long, sharp nails and an itchy face.

She looks like her mommy.

Though, at the moment, she takes after her daddy…

Napping.

She seems so tiny.

Maybe the fact that she’s over two pounds lighter than mine was at birth has something to do with it.

I can’t wait to see her grow up.

Welcome to the family, Celise!

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Before I write anything else, I have to let you know that I’m an aunty again!  My sis had a baby girl today!  She had a scheduled C-Section this morning and her new baby is 7lbs 15 oz. and her name is Celise.  I haven’t seen her yet.  Hopefully I can get in to see her tonight.  Then I will post a picture on here.

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My grandma turned 80 on March 7.  Her birthday is easy to remember because it’s the day after mine.

My dad flew out from Prince Edward Island and a bunch of her old friends (some of them were quite old) came to visit with her.

That’s my dad, standing up.

My uncle and aunt came from Edmonton.  They’re the ones on the far right and the far left.

Luke and Steph came down from Bill’s Puddle (Williams Lake).  They stayed with us until dad flew in, then they went to Hannah’s and dad stayed with us.  That’s Luke in the foreground, sidled up to the trough and grazing happily.  It’s his favourite pastime.

And here’s Steph wishing she had a baby.  Hee hee.

Here’s me showing Steph that moms can still be Hot.

Did I mention I love my hair?

We had Grandma’s little shindig at Hannah’s house cause mine’s too small and the only couch I own is on the porch cause it wouldn’t fit into the house (we tried valiantly).

Hannah’s neighbour made a really nice cake.

We all ate way too much, but we had fun looking through some old albums with black and white photos of grandma’s grandpa and her dad and her brother and the foxes they used to raise in Saskatchewan way back when there was a market for them.

Hannah and Steph and I made a banner for the event.

It’s one of those things that we do for every birthday or baby shower that occurs for anybody that goes to our church.

It’s like a tradition.

Or a bad habit.

Some large paper balls were part of the decor.

Along with some pretty balloons.

Grandma had a great time reading cards from all her friends.

And opening presents.

And watching dad try to figure out what they were.

I think this one was a shawl.

Grandma really enjoyed herself.  Hopefully enough to stick around a while longer.

She promised us she’d make it to 80, but maybe we can convince her to hang around long enough to get some photos of her with some more great grandkids.

If she agrees to that, we might be able to keep her for another 6 or 8 years.

My birthday party was the next day, also at Hannah’s.  It wasn’t quite so exciting (for Hannah), but we finished off all the appies and Grandma’s yummy cake, and I got to visit with my friends, and chat with my mom on Skype.

I got to open presents too.

I like opening presents.

I wish birthdays came around more than once a year, except that we’d all be a lot older than we are now.

Maybe that’s not such a good idea.

PS. Hannah took all the pictures in this post.  Thanks Hannah.

PSS. In case you’re confused, my birthday is on the 6th and Grandma’s is on the 7th, but she had her party on my birthday and I had my party on her birthday.  I hope that clears things up.

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Okay, I promised you I would show you some pictures of my lovely new haircut, and the other day I remembered to take them AND I remembered my camera at the same time!  We were visiting Darryl’s Aunt M and Aunt A at the time.  They were assembling a large white cabinet for the laundry room so instead of helping, I took pictures of them struggling with the doors and a bunch of pictures of myself.

Nice huh?

Check out the colour.  It’s perfect.

I opted for bangs on the side and I love it.  Actually, I love everything about my hair now, except for the wonky part at the back that hates being covered up.  But I get around that by never turning my back to people.  It’s tricky in church and at the grocery store and I get the odd puzzled stare or lady pulling her kids away from me, but other than that, it works.

Sure beats blowdrying.

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Sorry I haven’t written to you lately.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

Spring is arriving already.  We haven’t had any snow worth mentioning and the temperature rarely drops down to negative numbers.  There’s even green grass sprouting up under the trees.

All that is good.

But if we get a good frost sometime before spring actually arrives, all the budding trees will die!  Another sign pointing to a food shortage in 2010.

I’m not a doomsdayer, I’m a realist.  God gave me a brain so I could use it, and it’s helped me in the past.

Last spring we built up our pantry with staples that we use all the time, like flour, rice and canned tomatoes. We had no idea we would need it a few short months later when work was really scarce and we had next to no income for 3 or 4 months.  We just thought it was a good idea and I sure feel good knowing I can make yummy meals from scratch without running to the store for ingredients.  We’re building it up again now and planning a better garden for this year.

Another sign of spring is the mice.  They’re awake and they’re everywhere.  One unlucky fellow found a way into the wall behind the kitchen sink and couldn’t get back out.  For the last couple of days the putrid smell of rotting mouse flesh has been radiating out several feet, so every time I walk by or have to use the sink my olfactory senses are ravaged.

The fan above the stove has been on for two days straight.  It helps a bit.

In other news, I finally got my hair done!  I seriously have not had my hair done for…ever.  I did chop it all short one year and dyed it blond (that was fun), but it wasn’t exactly a professional job.  The cut cost me a dollar.  My sister dyed it.

Nope, this time I wanted the real thing.

All I ever did with my hair was pull it back.  It was too long and boring to even bother with straightening or trying to make it look like I’ve had it done in the last century, so I didn’t even bother.  Not that I had the time to tame it anyway.  It took hours to blowdry, but it dried on it’s own overnight.  My arms turned to rubber and started to fall off if I ever tried straightening it.  It just took too darn long.

Then my friend got her hair done and I began imagining what I would look like with an amazing haircut like that.  I got her hairdresser’s number and sat on it for a month until I finally had time to go.  I went last saturday.  Darryl took Sadie with him so I had 2.5 hours of pampering.  I even got a hand massage.

My hairdresser (yeah, I think I’ll keep her) did an amazing job with the colour (I got foils to add some dimension to the boring brown colour it’s always been) and I gave her free rein with the cut and she did an awesome job.  Not high maintenance or too edgy, but definitely not boring!

I wish I had a picture for you, but I don’t yet.  I will do my best to get one soon!

I have another picture for you instead.

Hannah asked me the other day why there’s no photos of her on here.  I think she wants to see herself on the net somewhere other than facebook, so here’s a shot of her.

Oops, that’s not a very good one.  Sorry.

How about this one?

I won’t post a current picture of her but just have a look at the first one again.  That’s pretty close to what she looks like right now.  Only she has another 3 months to go.

Yesterday the horses got out.  I went to water them once Sadie was asleep and they weren’t standing at the fence waiting for me.  There’s nowhere to hide in their pen so I grabbed the halters, found where they got out and followed tracks down the driveway.  A lady in a van drove in right then and said she had two horses in her yard.  Yayy!  She gave me a ride up the street and I caught them easily and led them home. Sadie was still sleeping.:)  I had to put them in the big pasture until we can get the fence fixed.

Then I went to Hannah’s house and we made 2 batches of bread, but they didn’t rise properly and came out a little heavy.  I let Hannah keep them.  My bread recipe needs to be adapted for her house, somehow.  I was told the granite counters may have been a problem because they’re too cold for bread to rise properly on.  The second rise was on a warm stove though.  Who knows.  Bread is very mysterious.

Well, I will try to have more photos next time.  I have to go brave the kitchen to get it cleaned up.  Luckily it should only take a couple minutes.  Then I have to go make sure the horses are still there before Sadie gets up.:)

Then I have to set some mouse traps.

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I know that some of you are moms and/or grandmas out there, so you won’t mind if I show you some MORE pictures of my adorable daughter, right?

She still would rather pull herself along the floor than crawl, but she has started pulling herself up to standing on the furniture or the laundry hamper (full of folded clothes) or the dog.  The chairs even have nifty rungs to pull yourself up on, and the dishwasher door is at just the right height when it’s open.

Here’s a Sadie’s-eye-view of the house.  It looks way bigger from down here.

Darryl took these shots when she was trying to climb up on him.

I love the little half-smirk.  I might not like it so much when she’s 15.

She can also stand up on her own.

For 0.004 nanoseconds.

She likes to play with the dog bear.  Did I mention we have a bear?  I was going to keep it a secret until it was up on the wall, but I guess since she let the cat out of the bag (so to speak), I’ll show you some more cute shots.

She looks so casual about fiddling with his teeth.

Now she wants to be a dentist.

But I’ll show you the bear some other time, okay?

Now, some of you keep whining that I don’t put more pictures of me on here.  There are three reasons for that.

1. I’m usually the one taking the pictures.

2. Darryl tends to catch me in mid blink.

3. IMHO, I’m not photogenic enough for the world wide web.  I’m a behind-the-scenes kind of girl.

BUT, here’s one where Darryl caught me with my eyes open.  Hopefully it will silence the squeaky wheel for a while.

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My little brother Luke likes large lumbering lifted (with ladder bars) long lorries with the largest of the large campers on the back.

This is his F350 Powerstroke Diesel 4X4 with crew cab and long box.  And it is LONG.  No squeezing into parking spaces near the entrance.  This behemoth forces him to exercise.  And walking from the far reaches of the parking lot and back is about the only exercise he gets, so I guess it’s a good thing.:)

This photo was taken the day they left to go home after the holidays.  It was finally snowing after two weeks of nothing but melting and freezing, leaving the driveway so slippery that even this beast of a truck had difficulty navigating the flat sections.  And walking on it was out of the question.

It’s fun to ride in.  If you can get in, that is.  The seat is about 6 feet off the ground and there’s no step, so you have to pretend you’re a monkey in the rainforest and grab anything within reach to haul your cumbersome body into the treetops with just your scrawny little arms.

Once you’re in, it’s like riding in a jet plane.  Anything that darts in front of you within a hundred feet disappears forever.  Traffic?  What traffic?  Just nose up behind that tiny tin box of a car in front of you and they leave a puddle of scared on the road and pull over at the first opportunity, like onto the sidewalk.

Wouldn’t you if you saw this in your rear view mirror??

No, we didn’t make them sleep in the camper while they were here.  They got the camper for christmas and were taking it home with them.

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Hello again!  No, our internet is still down.  I’m writing this from my parent’s computer with no furniture in the room.  They’re packing up the moving truck today and they’re leaving tomorrow for Prince Edward Island.

I’m supposed to be helping them pack right now.

But Sadie is stirring so I might have to look after her instead.  Oh darn.

We should be getting our new Macbooks today.  My dad bought one for each of us so we can keep in touch with webcams.  The first thing I’ll be doing is cracking open the manual.  These things are complicated when you’re used to PC’s.  I think I’ll miss having a right click button.  So easy to find stuff that way.  I always spend ten minutes trying to figure out how to unplug my camera when I download photos on a mac.  Still haven’t figured out how to compress pictures for the internet.

Sigh.

We got a good frost last night and the snow line has dropped to a couple hundred meters above us.  I’m so glad we decided not to raise a third batch of chickens.  It was cold enough last weekend when we processed the second batch.  We had some friends come up to help us so it only took 5 hours instead of 10.

We got our second horse last week.  My aunt gave him to us!  I will be posting pictures when I can, and when the mud covering his white coat has dried off enough for me to scrape it off.

We haven’t seen the cat since he hid under the porch couch the first day we put him outside.  We gave away the rest of the cat food.

Well, I suppose I should get back to work.  I’ll update you again soon, I hope.

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Darryl and I both forgot about our anniversary (it was September 23).

I know, it’s terrible.

The only reason I remembered was because I got an e-mail the next day congratulating me (thanks Joan!).  Then, just to see if Darryl had completely forgotten like I did, I nonchalantly asked him what day it was yesterday.  He said, “Wednesday”.

Then I told him and we had a good chuckle.

We had spent most of the day together though, running around and doing errands.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

September 23…I should mark it on next year’s calendar as soon as I get it so I actually remember.

We take a photo every year of us in front of our house with our vehicles and pets, just so we can see the change that’s happened in the last year.

I lost last year’s photo when our computer crashed last winter.  And the first photo is on my parent’s computer, I think.  I guess I’d better get it before they leave.

This one was taken a couple weeks after our anniversary (yesterday, in fact).

There’s no vehicles in this one cause we sold the red 4-Runner and the ugly beast was still broken down, so it didn’t get to be in the picture.

Darryl’s holding one of the broiler chickens, even though they’re not exactly pets.  The layers got their heads in the foreground.

If our anniversary was in October, you’d probably see another horse, another dog, a cat and a van.  And no broilers.  Yum yum.

Photos of animal additions will be coming soon.

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